“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge.”
We now come to the first main segment of 2 Peter. The first four verses comprise the Introduction. Verse five begins the body of the epistle. Verses 5-11 set before us the characteristics of the Christian life. Just any kind of life is not the Christian life. Certain qualities indicate whether the Christian is living genuine Christianity. These qualities set forth seven basic building blocks of the Christian life.
But also for this very reason
“This” refers to the divine disposition of the previous verse.
We can render “for this very reason” as “for this very cause.” The antecedent of this phrase is verses three and four, in particular the double gift of “life” and “godliness” bestowed on us by Christ. This double gift should compel us to use our divine nature for God’s glory. The idea is this: “Seeing that we have power for life and godliness, we should use our divine nature.”
There is a striking advance on the first four verses. The first four verses set forth our status in Christ. Beginning with verse five, we come to other side of the coin. This is the corollary truth to our status in Christ. This truth has to do with our state, not our status. It has to do with our deportment before God. This truth depends on what we do, not what He did.
PRINCIPLE:
God wants us to apply truth to experience.
APPLICATION:
Our status before God is not changeable but our state is changeable for it is the experience of our status. The order is important. First comes our status then our state. First comes our position before God then follows our responsibility to that position. God first saves us by grace. Now that we have the gift of eternal life, we do something with it.
Ep 4: 1 “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”
Our calling is our status quo before God in Christ (Ephesians chapters 1-3). Our “walk” is how we apply that status to experience. We need to do something with the “divine nature [disposition]” God gave us.
Hello
throughout my life as a believer God’s spirit has consistantly aroused me to turn to 2 Peter 1:5-10 where I was prompted to understand verse 5 to read, “add to yourself by your faith virtue”
When I questioned my interpretation the spirit led me to verse 1 where the whole subject of the passage is the precious faith that I have obtained. Through it vs 3 which the divine power has given to us all thing.
Having awoke this morning once again with this thought I looked at the greek to see if I could justify this interpretation and found that the word “your” in verse 5 could be interpreted “you”, or yourself, and the interpretation of “faith” to be “by faith” as it is in Hebrews 11.
I thought of you and looked to see how you had handled this passage. It seems you are saying it is works that you add to faith. not that the Spirit by using faith brings about growth in orderly steps as verses 5-11 is discribing.
respond if you please
Robert Pollock
Robert,
Did you advance to 1:5d? If not, check what I say there. The word “you” is a genitive plural and refers to the entire constituency to whom Peter is writing.
Grant